Real Estate Litigation Articles

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca I learned of a new term in the housing industry last week. "White box" refers to a newly constructed house or condominium unit that is built to the minimum standards necessary to comply with the Ontario Building Code. It may have one sink, one...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca Last week I had the opportunity to review a condominium builder purchase agreement with a couple of clients. They had been told in the sales office what they thought was the total purchase price and asked me to see if there were any surprises in...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca The Ontario Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by a mother who promised to give her son two family cottages if he renovated them, but then changed her mind. The story began back in 2000 when Margaret Sheldrake made an agreement with her son...

Christopher and Lindsay Taggart were dismayed to discover that the lot underneath their newly constructed home was 1,000 square feet smaller than it was represented to be. The home is located in a new subdivision in Maple Ridge, B.C. Behind their lot was a parcel of...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca What happens if you buy a house and it turns out to be more than 18 per cent smaller than the advertised size? That's what happened in the summer of 2003 to Bruce and Karen Meagher after they bought a house in New Westminster, B.C., from Marlene...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca A new American law set to take effect June 1, 2009 will require anyone selling a residential property in Cook County, Ill. which includes Chicago to provide a thumbprint or fingerprint. Under the cumbersome moniker of the Cook County Residential...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca Over the last 18 months, approximately 700 older homes in Ontario have been insulated with a product containing urea formaldehyde foam insulation, or UFFI. The problem is that the use of UFFI has been illegal in Canada since it was banned in...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca As part of its green energy legislation, the McGuinty government is poised to shred the right to privacy that all citizens enjoy in their lawyer's offices solicitor-client privilege. It is described in a 2001 decision of the Supreme Court of...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca Imposing mandatory energy reports will further depress prices and sales volumes If it was the intention of the Ontario government to do as much damage as possible to the Toronto real estate market, then it has succeeded admirably in its goals....

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca The Ontario Court of Appeal has written what may well be the final chapter in what I call The Case of the $100,000 Fence. The case involved a dispute over a strip of land between two houses on Johnston Ave. near Sheppard and Yonge in North...